elements in the daily life and work of the station. His cheery greeting as he made the daily round of the laboratories to learn the needs of the three score and ten investigators, and his versatile talents, whether seen administering discipline-in Neapolitan-to some unruly member of his motley crew, or as the genial host at the trattoria on the Vico Pasquale, or singing "John Brown" to the strumming of his guitar on an "Ausflug" of the "Johannes Müller," endeared him to the biologists of many nations.

The crowded state of the station prior to its extension in 1905 prevented the development of any extensive collection of marine life for exhibition or reference, but this department will be taken up by Dr. R. Gast, whose superb casts of marine animals have achieved. great success in artistic circles.

No botanist is at present attached to the station.

The newly erected department of comparative physiology, with its profoundly important relations to human and comparative medicine and its superb instrumental equipment, is under the able direction of Dr. R. Burian, while Doctor Bauer acts as zootomical assistant to aid those students of physiology who have no adequate knowledge of the anatomy of the marine forms with which they wish to work. For this purpose a series of anatomical papers dealing with forms most used in experimental operations have been begun by Doctor Bauer. The first, upon the Cephalopoda, has been published (1909), and many drawings for later subjects are already available for workers in physiology.

The department of physiological chemistry, working in close conjunction with that of physiology, is under the guidance of Dr. M. Henze, a chemist of wide experience in the organic field.

The correspondence and business affairs of an institution having such varied interests and relations with so many persons and institutions are sufficient to demand the services of an experienced secretary, Mr. Hermann Linden, through whom all business with the authorities of the city, post, telegraph, railway, customs, and public utilities is carried on. He also conducts the correspondence with appointees to the various tables, and, through the station, is of great service to foreigners on arrival in all matters pertaining to hotels, pensions, baggage, customs, etc.

The complicated technical problems which arise in a large scientific institution, such as the Naples station, afford scope for the employment of a trained engineer and architect, Mr. E. Gravina, who has charge of the building and the equipment and the construction of all new fittings and apparatus. The Naples station has adopted the seemingly expensive method of constructing much of its own equipment, and the engineer has, accordingly, a staff of trained mechanics. who are kept busy throughout the year. The

familiarity thus gained with the needs of the station, the improvements made, the promptness and certainty with which work can be accomplished, and above all, the saving in the time of the staff otherwise required in supervision, more than justify the expense.

The Naples zoological station is a private institution, the property of its director, and is unique accordingly in its origin, support, and administration. The only restrictions upon the powers of the director are those under which the site in the public park was granted to the station, insuring the use of the building solely for scientific purposes. The station is not officially attached to any other institution, educational, political, or economic, and has thus escaped the evils of bureaucratic control, and, having a strong executive, it has not needed such supervision to insure its success. An annual report to the German minister of foreign affairs by the director is the only external obligation of the station.

The income of the station is derived in part from the rental of tables, which yields about 125,000 lire annually, and the receipts from admissions to the aquaria, which fluctuate largely with the number of tourists visiting Naples. Receipts from this source (admission, 2 lire) average about 50,000 lire yearly, but the cost of maintenance is a very heavy item in the total expenditures (200,000 lire) of the station.

A unique feature of the Naples station is the "table" system of support. The station undertakes for $500 per annum to provide research privileges for one person throughout the year. Tables are not rented for less than a whole year. The considerable amount of this rental has naturally thrown the burden of providing for it upon state and educational authorities, and scientific organizations of a permanent sort. The result is that the station has a regular and certain support, and is enabled to run continuously year after year, while a much larger number of biologists can thus make use of its facilities, being relieved of the necessity of supporting both themselves and the enterprise.

It is this feature of the Naples station which has made it from the beginning an international institution and has drawn investigators to it from practically all civilized lands. At present there are fifty tables under annual subscription. Prussia supports four tables and Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg, Baden, Hesse, Hamburg, and the University of Strassburg each, one. The German complement of eleven tables is, however, increased to twenty-two, because of the annual subvention of 20,000 marks from the German foreign office. Of the remaining twenty-eight tables, Italy controls eight through the minister of public instruction, one through the minister of agriculture, three, by the province of and one (furnished gratis) by the city of Naples. Russia supports four, Austria two, Belgium two,

Holland two, Hungary, Switzerland, and the Roumanian Academy one each. There are three English tables supported by the universities of Cambridge and Oxford and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The Scandinavian countries, France, Spain, Greece, and Turkey are practically the only European countries not supporting tables regularly.

There are at present five American tables. Of these one has been supported by the Smithsonian Institution at Washington since 1893; one by the Carnegie Institution since 1903; and one by Columbia University intermittently since 1896. An American table was also supported in 1883 by Williams College, in 1885 by the University of Pennsylvania, from 1894 to 1896 by Mr. Alexander Agassiz, and in 1891-1895 by Major Davis.

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the station, the American women (Dr. Ida Hyde and others) who had enjoyed the privileges of Doctor Dohrn's institution started a movement to endow a woman's table at the station. It resulted in a permanent organization, "The Naples Table Association for Promoting Laboratory Research by Women," which since 1898 has maintained a table by annual subscriptions of $50 each. The year of the association begins in April, and all applications for the following year should be sent to the secretary on or before March 1. The appointments are made by the executive committee.

A prize of $1,000 has been offered periodically by the association for the best thesis written by a woman, on a scientific subject, embodying new observations and new conclusions based on an independent laboratory research in biological, chemical, or physical science. The third prize was awarded in April, 1909.

Application blanks, information in regard to the advantages at Naples for research and collection of material, and circulars giving the conditions of the award of the prize were furnished by the secretary."

The woman's table is equipped with a Zeiss microscope with achromatic objectives, a camera lucida, and a large Zeiss dissecting microscope of the latest model.

Since its foundation over twenty American women have enjoyed the privileges of this table. Thus, indirectly, the Naples station

a For the year 1908-9 the following colleges, associations, and individuals were contributors: Association of Collegiate Alumnæ, Western Reserve University; Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College, Smith College, University of Pennsylvania, Vassar College, Wellesley College, Women's College in Brown University, Women's Advisory Committee of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, Woman's College of Baltimore, Miss Helen Collamore, Mrs. Alice Upton Pearmain, Mrs. J. M. Arms Sheldon, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Shepard, and Mrs. Mary Thaw Thompson.

Executive committee of the association is composed of the following: Dr. Lilian Welsh, The Arundel, Charles street, Baltimore, Md., chairman; Miss Lida Shaw King, Brown University, Providence, R. L.; Miss Sarah E. Doyle, 119 Prospect street, Providence, R. I.; Mrs. Alice Upton Pearmain, 388 Beacon street, Boston, Mass.; Miss Caroline Hazard, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.; Mrs. Elizabeth L. Clarke (Mrs. S. F.), Williamstown, Mass., treasurer; Mrs. Ada Wing Mead (Mrs. A. D.), 283 Wayland avenue, Providence, R. I., secretary.